Brick-machine.



H. & J. H. BESSER.

BRICK MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 26. 1912.

mgfi zl'z, Patented 29,1916.

3 SH SHEET 1- |NV TORS F n/saww /44 14,. I A? BY H. BESSER.

BRICK MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-26,1912.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

WITNESSES m: mmms PETERS co.. Prwm'unm WASHINGTON. o c.

H. & J. H. BESSER- BRICK MACHINE.

APPLICATION man OCT. 26, I9l2.

Patented Aug. 29, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

INVENTORS WITNESSES:

ATTORNEY HERMAN BESSER AND JESSE H. IBESSER, OF ALPENA, MICHIGAN.

BRICK-MACHINE.

am W

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 29, 19%.

Application filed October 26, 1912. Serial No. 727,985.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HERMAN Bnssnn and Jesse H. Bnssnn, both citizens of the United States, residing at Alpena, in the county of Alpena and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Brick-Machines; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention is a brick or block making machine and is more especially adapted to machines for making bricks from concrete.

The improvement relates still more particularly to that class of'concrete brick machines in which the mixture of cement, sand, and gravel or other ingredients is fed into the machine in a moist state of such consistency as to be readily formed by tamping.

Our improved machine is adapted to form a number of bricks simultaneously and to automatically feed the material to the molds, tamp the material in the molds to a uniform density, strike off the surplus material from the tamped mold and deliver the tamped bricks from the machine at a steady and uniform rate.

The particular objects of our improvement are to provide in a continuous feed concrete brick machine means whereby the material of each brick will be tamped to a uniform density, the sides of the brick being automatically smoothed as they pass through the machine, and the upper surface being struck off and smoothed as the brick passes through the machine.

One of the important features of our 1nvention consists in providing means for striking off the surplus material from the tamped brick and delivering the surplus s0 removed into the next succeeding cell or mold, so that no material is wasted. It will thus be noted that by this device of striking off the surplus material, the variation due to differences in compacting capacity of various bricks does not affect the size of the finished brick, for we supply to each mold a surplus of material andthen strike off the surplus after the brick is tamped, so that the top surface of the brick is smooth and even and all the bricks are of uniform size and equal density.

With these and certain other objects in view which will appear later in the specification, our invention consists in the devices described and claimed and the equivalents thereof.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side view in perspective, of the feedingin end of the machine; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the frame with the gears and sprockets shown diagrammatically and some of the working parts removed, theframe being viewed from the side opposite that shown in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a similar view of the opposite side of the machine; Fig. 4 is a rear elevation showing the delivery end of the machine with the conveyer and tampers and part of the frame removed; Fig. 5 is a part sectional side view of one of the dividing plates, showing the hopper and one of the tampers; Fig. 6 is a front view of one of the tamping bars and the dividing plates; Fig. 7 is a detail' of a cam; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of one of the conveyer flights; and Fig. 9 is a detail of the cam shaft and its connection to the smoothing bar.

As is clearly shown in the drawings, the machine consists in a frame 1 upon which is mounted a sprocket conveyor 2. The conveyer consists of flights 3 comprising links of the conveyer, and sprockets 4L revolubly mounted on suitable bearings carried by the frame 1. The details of construction of the flights will be described later.

Above the sprocket conveyer 2 is arranged a hopper 5 through which the mixed material is supplied to the machine. The mouth of the hopper extends across the machine from side to side and is adapted to deliver material across the entire width of the flights 8. Each flight is of sufficient width to accommodate the width of a number of bricks, in the machine illustrated there being provision for eight bricks to each flight.

Directly beneath the'mouth of the hopper 5 and above the path of travel of the bot toms of flights 8 is arranged a plurality of parallel dividing plates 6, all of the plates being pivotally connected at their forward ends to a cross-bar 7 carried by the frame 1. The material delivered from the hopper falls between the dividing plates, filling the spaces between them and resting on pallet boards 8 that ride through the machine on the faces of the flights 3. Located to the rear of hopper 5 and above the upper edges of the dividing plates 6 is a plurality of vertically movable tampers 9 (see Figs. 5 and 6). Preferably the feet of the tampers are about equal in length to the length of a brick, the width ofthe feet being slightly less than the distance between the dividing plates, so that the tampers will not strike the dividing plates. The tampers are actuated up and down at comparatively high speed, say about 100 strokes per minute, by.

cams 10, 10. The function of the cams and their cam shaft 11 is to engage and raise the tampers one after the'other and allow them to drop by gravity upon the material 'on the pallet. Each tamper operates independently of the others and the cams are preferably so arranged on the cam shaft that no two tampers drop at the same time, thereby reducing the shock on the machine.

To the rear of the tampers is located a transversesmoothing bar 12. This bar is L- shaped in cross-section and preferably made of angle iron and has a reciprocating movement in the direction of its length and crosswise with relation to the direction of travel of the bricks through the machine. The face of the smoothing bar has a removable plate 13 of tool steel on its bottom. The

. smoothing bar is spring-pressed downwardly by springs 14, 14.

- To permit the flights 3 to pass the dividing plates 6, the rear walls 15 of the flights are formed with vertical slots 16, each of the slots receiving one of the dividing plates as the flights pass under the hopper. After 7 the pallets are placed on the flights at the reing plates) and there the material in each cell is rammed to the desired density. The

density is controlledby the weight of the tamper, the height of lift impartedto it by the cam thatoperates it, and the rapidity .of the blows delivered, which depends upon the speed of the cam shaft 11. The upper part of the tamped material as it moves forward, encounters the transverse smoothing bar 12 by which the upper surface of the brick is struck off to size and properly smoothed. The material struck from one 7 brick rolls back upon the next succeeding brick so that all of the material is used. The hopper delivers to the moving cells only so much as is required to fill them up to the mouth of the hopper. a

' 1 The dividing plates 6 beingpivotally mounted at their front ends on cross-bar 7 are capable of yielding slightly in a vertical plane to automatically adapt themselves to unevennesses in the pallets as the latter pass under the dividing plates.

The flights 3 comprise a horizontal flange that receives the pallet, and the slotted vertical flange that receives the dividing plates, and the flights areso connected that when traversing the top or bottom horizontal lead of the conveyer, the edges of successive flights are close to each other, forming a practically continuous horizontal table, but at the receiving and delivery ends where the flights pass around sprockets 4, the edges of the flights separate so as to permit the easy removal and-insertion of the pallet boards 8. Rollers 17 mounted at the side edges of the flights support the flights as they travel through the machine, the rollers traveling on rails 18 secured to the frame.

'In practice a pallet with its eight bricks in place is removed from the machine and placed aside until the bricks have sufiiciently 1 set to enable them to be handled without liability of breakage.

The particular means by which the conveyers 2 are driven, and the means by which A the tampers 9 are actuated, and the means by which the smoothing bar 12 is moved.

back and forth are immaterial to the spirit of our present invention and we do not desire to confine our invention to any specific mechanism for operating these parts. We

have, however, for purpose of better de scription illustrated a preferred form of such driving mechanism. 19 is the receiving pulley, driven from any suitable source, and mounted on a shaft 20. To the other end of this shaft is'secured, by means of a clutch 21, a sprocket 22 connected by a drive chain 23 to the sprocket 24 on cam shaft 11.

. The clutch 21 is adapted to throw the mechanism into or out of gear with the drive cam shaft 11 is fixed a sprocket 26, connected by chain 27 to a large sprocket 28.

. This sprocket is keyed to shaft 29 upon which is also mounted a pinion 30. This pinion meshes with gear 31 on shaft 32. A pinion 33 on the opposite end of shaft 32 drives a gear 34, fixed to shaft 29, on which the sprockets 4 of the conveyer are mounted. A downwardly spring-pressed 'shaft 20. Upon the opposite end of the smoothing roller 36'is provided to roll flat 1 the surface that has been acted on by the smoothing bar. This roller is driven by a sprocket 37, chain 38 and sprocket 39 on shaft 29.

'The reciprocating smoothing bar 12 ispreferably moved back and forth by an eccentric 40 on shaft 11, the eccentric strap being connected, as shown 'in Fig. 9, to the smoothing bar by means of an L-lever 41 pivotally mounted on the frame, and a link 42 that connects the L-lever to the bar. If desired, a sprocket 43 (Fig. 1) may be provided on shaft 32, and a chain 44 may lead from this sprocket to drive any desired form of apparatus by which the bricks may be carried from the machine.

By the means above described we have produced a machine for the continuous production of tamped concrete bricks and blocks, that is simple in construction, does not waste material, produces substantially smoothed surfaces on three surfaces of the brick, and produces bricks of uniform density and hardness.

Having described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Pattent is In a continuous-feed brick machine, a hopper, a plurality of vertically disposed parallel dividing plates located beneath the hopper, said plates pivotally mounted at their forward ends, the forward ends of said plates adapted to limited vertical movement, a conveyer comprising a plurality of L-shaped flights linked together, the vertical member of each flight formed with slots to receive the respective dividing plates, a plurality of tampers located to the rear of said hopper, said tampers being of slightly less width than the distance between successive dividing plates, a reciprocating spring-pressed smoothing bar located to the rear of the tamper, and removable pallets carried by said flights.

In testimony whereof we affix. our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

HERMAN BESSER. JESSE H. BESSER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

